you
will you take your seats and turn to song number
177 we're gonna sing
When Love Shines In
177
When
Shines in?
177.
Jesus comes with bough to gladden when love shines in.
Every life that woe can sadden when love shines in.
Love will teach us how to pray.
Love will drive the gloom to the sky.
Love will drive the gloom away.
Turn our darkness in today when love shines in.
When love shines in.
How the heart is true to singing when love shines in.
When love shines in.
Joy and peace to others ringing when love shines in.
How the world will glow with beauty when love shines in.
And the heart rejoices in duty when love shines in.
Trials may be sanctified.
And the soul and peace abide.
Life will all be glorified when love shines in.
When love shines in.
How the heart is true to singing when love shines in.
When love shines in.
Joy and peace to others ringing when love shines in.
Darkest hour will glow brighter when love shines in.
And the heaviest burden's lighter when love shines in.
Tis the glory that will throw light to show us where to go.
Oh, the heart shall blessing go when love shines in.
When love shines in.
How the heart is true to singing when love shines in.
When love shines in.
Joy and peace to others ringing when love shines in.
We may have unfading splendor when love shines in.
And a friendship true and tender when love shines in.
When our victory shall be won and our life and have begun.
There will be no need of sun when love shines in.
When love shines in.
How the heart is true to singing when love shines in.
When love shines in.
Joy and peace to others ringing when love shines in.
Let us pray. Father, thank you for letting us all come together to sing praise your name and hear the preaching and teaching of your word.
Lord, I pray you bless the service that goes on today.
Bless the people that have not been able to make it, that have been struggling with this whole power outage thing and the messed up plumbing.
Lord, they help us to all get it fixed, Lord, and our members of the church that are struggling right now.
Please bless them, be with them, keep them safe, Lord, and just strengthen their spirits.
And we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Next song we're singing is a song of 160.
160, crown him with many crowns.
Again, it's 160.
Round him with many crowns.
The lamb upon his throne.
Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns.
All music but its own.
Now wake my soul and sing of him who died for thee.
And help him as thy matchless King through all eternity.
Crown him the Lord of love.
Behold his hands and side.
Rich wounds yet visible above and beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky can fully bear that sign.
But downward bends his wandering eye and mysteries arise.
Crown him the Lord of lies who triumphed o'er the grave.
Who rose victorious to the strife for those he came to save.
His glories now we see who died and rose on high.
Who died eternal life to bring and lives that death may die.
Crown him the Lord of heaven, one with the Father known.
One with the Spirit through him give from yonder glorious throne.
To thee be endless praise for thou for us has died.
Be thou, O Lord, through endless days adored and magnified.
Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you didn't get a bulletin you can slip up your hand real quick
and Usher can come by and get you one.
On the front we have our Bible memory passage Exodus chapter number 20.
We're on week number 4 of 26 and this one's a little bit longer
so you might want to start working on it right now.
It's going to be a hard one to cram for on Wednesday night, you kiddos, alright?
On the inside we have our service and soul winning times
and there was a little bit of change this week due to all the chaos
with all the cold and everything but everything should be back to normal 100%
so there's nothing as far as services and soul winning that there's anything to report.
Everything should be back to regular schedule.
One note though for our services, our bathrooms aren't working
just because there's no water. There's no water in the building.
Apparently a pipe burst somewhere in the property
and the landlord had to turn off the water for the entire building
and because of it being difficult to get a plumber out in time,
he couldn't get it until Monday.
They're supposed to come Saturday but they are coming Monday
so it should be fixed and everything by Wednesday services.
Moving forward, apologize for the inconvenience
but if you feel like you're not going to be able to make it through the whole service
you might just go down the street quickly and use the bathroom
but other than that, we're still having our regular schedule services,
Spanish service and our evening service and so looking forward to that.
Also we have our church stats and our list of expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for all of them.
We still have our prayer list as well if you have any extra prayers
that you are in need of anything
and then we have a couple of upcoming events to make note of
and we had today Pastor Mejia is going to be preaching in Houston
and a lot of people travel down there
and so you can just be praying for their safety.
I know they're going to have a lot of fun down there
and also March 6th there's a Galveston marathon
so if you haven't made it down to Houston but you want to,
Galveston is coming up March 6th.
There will be a marathon all day there
and I'll be preaching that Sunday down there.
Also April 3rd we'll have Omega marathon.
April 4th which is Easter that evening service
we're going to observe the Lord's Supper immediately after the service
and then May 8th in honor of Mother's Day we're going to have a ladies tea.
All mothers and daughters are welcome to attend
and even if you're not a mother you are a daughter
and so you can still celebrate in honor of mothers
and you can invite your mother or invite other ladies to participate
but we'll have a special ladies tea event.
Also May 20th through the 22nd we're going to have a men's retreat.
This is going to be very similar to last year's.
If you were able to go last year it's going to be very similar.
If you haven't I'd really recommend.
It's a great time of fellowship and some really good preaching
and really everybody that went seemed that they really enjoyed themselves
and so I'd really encourage you to try and make that
and that's pretty much all that I have for announcements at this time.
Let's go ahead and go to our third song, song 138,
The Haven of Rest, song 138.
My soul in sad exile was out on life's sea
So murdered with sin and distress
Till I heard a sweet voice saying make me your choice
And I entered the haven of rest
I've anchored my soul in the haven of rest
I'll sail the wide seas no more
The tempest may sweep or the wild stormy deep
In Jesus I'm safe evermore
I've yielded myself to his tender embrace
And faith taking hold of the word
My feathers fell off and I anchored my soul
The haven of rest is my Lord
I've anchored my soul in the haven of rest
I'll sail the wide seas no more
The tempest may sweep or the wild stormy deep
In Jesus I'm safe evermore
The song of my soul since the Lord made me whole
Has been the old story so blessed
Of Jesus who'll save whosoever will have
A home in the haven of rest
I've anchored my soul in the haven of rest
I'll sail the wide seas no more
The tempest may sweep or the wild stormy deep
In Jesus I'm safe evermore
O come to the Savior he patiently waits
To save by his hour divine
Come anchor your soul in the haven of rest
And save my beloved is mine
I've anchored my soul in the haven of rest
I'll sail the wide seas no more
The tempest may sweep or the wild stormy deep
In Jesus I'm safe evermore
O come anchor your soul in the haven of rest
I'll sail the wide seas no more
In Jesus I'm safe evermore
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God
According to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus
To Timothy, my dearly beloved son
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
And Christ Jesus our Lord
I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience
That without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day
Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears
That I may be filled with joy
When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee
Which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice
And I am persuaded that in thee also
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God
Which is in thee by the putting on of my hands
For God hath not given us a spirit of fear
But of power and of love and of a sound mind
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord
Nor of me his prisoner
But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
According to the power of God
Who hath saved us and called us within holy calling
Not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace
Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began
But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ
Who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel
Whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles
For the which cause I also suffer these things
Nevertheless I am not ashamed
For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
Which I have committed unto him against that day
Hold fast the form of sound words
Which thou has heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus
That good thing which was committed unto thee
Keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us
This thou knowest that they which are in Asia be turned away from me
Of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes
The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus
For he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain
But when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me
The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day
And in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus
Thou knowest very well
Spire heads for word of prayer
Dear Father, we just thank you that we could be in your house this Sunday morning
Dear the preaching of your words, please bless Pastor Shelley and fill him with your Holy Spirit now
That we could all be edified this morning
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen
Amen
Let's look back at verse number 7 again and the Bible reads
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear
But of power and of love and of a sound mind
And the title of the sermon this morning is this
Overcome the spirit of fear
And when we talk about the word fear
I wanted to give a dictionary definition just so we have some kind of an idea
But fear according to the dictionary is an unpleasant
Often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger
And so fear is basically looking at something in the future that's dangerous
Or there's some kind of danger that you're afraid of
Or some kind of harm or some kind of evil
That you have this strong emotional feeling of being uncomfortable or not feeling well
That is the spirit of fear
And the Bible tells us that God has not given us the spirit of fear
And so we want to overcome the spirit of fear
And right here in this verse he gives us three ways to overcome that
Or to combat that
It says, notice, but of power and of love and of a sound mind
So that's going to be our outline for this morning
But let's focus on this first one, power
How can you overcome the spirit of fear?
You can overcome it with power but specifically the power of God
And as we read, let's read a few more verses here
Look what it says in verse number eight
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord
Nor of me as prisoner
But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
According to the power of God
So notice that he's instructing Timothy to endure
And to go through the afflictions that are attached to the gospel
And notice it's according to the power of God
Verse nine
Who has saved us and called us in holy calling
Not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace
Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began
But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ
Who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel
So we have him emphasizing something
He's emphasizing the fact that we've been saved
We've been called and we have eternal life
We have immortality that's been brought to light through the gospel
And the power of the gospel helps us overcome certain fears
Let me show you a fear
Go if you would to Matthew chapter number 10
Matthew chapter number 10 in your Bible
And let me show you one of these fears that people may have
And really while this is a fear according to the Bible
In some ways it is a good fear because it will motivate you to make the right decision
But we don't have to have this fear
And look what it says in Matthew 10 verse 28
And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul
But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell
Now those who are afraid of hell
All you have to do is simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
And through the power of the gospel you no longer have to fear going to hell
You no longer have to fear death itself
Because you've been given eternal life
And you know at the end of the day my home is heaven
And so at the end of the day no matter what fear may come upon you about death itself
It really is a good conclusion
Because you say okay well if I die what ends up happening after that
Why go to heaven
Sometimes people say you can't scare me with death
And really from a Christian's perspective that would be a right perspective
Because as soon as you die to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord
And it's to go on to glory and it's to be in a better state than you are now
There's really nothing negative about dying
It's actually glorious
And so that's why you're supposed to be comforted with the fact that you'll be with the Lord
That we're all going to be with the Lord
And so the power of the gospel, the power of God
Can help you overcome the fear of death itself
And hell because you're never going to go to hell
Even though we will one day physically perish
And notice because of this
Because of the fear of God
Having the right fear
Fearing you know the Lord and what he could do to you
Sending you to hell
Will cause you to get saved
And then notice there's some other fear in this passage
Verse number 28 that you're not supposed to have
What is that
It says in fear nothing would kill the body
So by having the right fear, the fear of God okay
Then you don't have to fear man
You don't have to fear what man can do unto you
And you don't have to fear death itself
The Bible says we shouldn't even fear him
Okay
And so you need to get your fears off of dying
Because you're going to heaven
How is
Why should you be afraid of dying when you realize it's going to be better
In fact most people when they're older especially
And maybe their life's not going well
They're like man I just wish I'd go to heaven already
You know I wish the Lord would just take me to heaven
Because why
Because they realize it's actually better
They realize that heaven is not something to be afraid of
But rather to embrace and to be excited and look forward to
So therefore when you have the right perspective
You know what it's going to stop you from being so worried
About physically dying
Go if you would to John chapter number 1
Let me prove this even further
That this is the power that helps us overcome
Look
God didn't give us a spirit of fear
He gave us the spirit you know of power
Okay
And what's that that spirit of power
Well that power comes from God and it comes specifically from the gospel
Look at John 1 12 the verse you're really familiar with
But as many as received him to them gave he
Notice this word power
To become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name
So what did God offer to us
He offered us the power to become a child of God
And you know what God's not trying to give you the fear of death
He's trying to give you the power to overcome that death
Okay
And obviously there is a right fear and that's the fearing the Lord
But the wrong fear would be to fear man killing you
Or to fear what's going to happen after death
He wants you to rather have the power of the gospel come upon you
To become a child of God and no longer fear death itself
Go to Acts chapter number 1
You know the apostle Paul makes a really declarative statement
He says
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death
I think Jesus Christ our Lord right
So he's not afraid of death anymore
He rather actually would die
And it says in Acts chapter 1 look at verse 8
But you shall receive power
After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you
And you shall be witnesses unto me
Both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria
And unto the uttermost part of the earth
Now notice they have power come upon them
What is that power helping them do
To be a witness of Jesus Christ
To go out and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
There are going to be times and certain areas of this world
Where preaching the gospel could cost you your very physical life
And we live in America today
And so we've been abstracted from very much persecution or reality
And so we don't often times realize this is a true point
But there's a lot of places in the world today
Where preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
Will literally put your life at risk
There are Muslim countries, China
There's all kinds of places around this world
Where you just telling somebody
Hey believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved
Would get you killed, would get you murdered
You would lose your physical life
But here's the thing
Am I supposed to have a fear of losing my physical life
And make it to where I would not preach the gospel
No, I'm not supposed to fear man
I'm not supposed to have that type of paralyzing terror
And paralyzing affrightment
But rather I'm supposed to have the power of God
And realize you know what
Even if they kill me I'm going to heaven
Hey no matter what they do to me
I still have eternal life
I still have the power of God
And God doesn't want us to go around terrified of every moment
He doesn't want us to constantly be so afraid
Of going out and preaching the gospel
And helping people get saved
No, he wants us to preach the gospel
Obviously the apostles
And as you read the book of Acts
You have to understand that
They realized there was many places
Or times when them preaching the gospel
Could be a real threat to their life
A real threat to their safety
And so they would use discretion
And obviously I'm not saying
You should try to pick a fight with someone
And you should try to find the most dangerous place on the planet
And preach the gospel there
And try to get killed
But at the same time
You know if you're put in a position to preach the gospel
Sometimes you just need to open your mouth boldly
To make known the mystery of the gospel
And say you know what
I'm going to let the consequences sort themselves out
Because I'm not supposed to fear man
I'm only supposed to fear God
And you say how could you not be afraid of death
Because I have the power of God
Because God gave me great power through the gospel
To not be afraid of death
Because I know after death I'm going to heaven anyways
And so you can overcome that spirit of fear
When tempted to not preach the gospel
By realizing the power of God is the gospel
That you are saved
That you do have eternal life
That hey after physical death
It's only going to be better anyways
You know don't threaten me with a good time
You know hey I'm just going to go to heaven as a martyr
Praise the Lord
Okay
Go if you would to Romans chapter number 1
Romans chapter number 1
But we see that the power
Is in reference to being a witness
Preaching the gospel
And they needed that power
You know we're man we're weak
If you ask me in the flesh
Can I overcome in the flesh
The fear of death
You know the fear of physical torment
Or whatever pain
The answer is no
I can't do it
I'm not stronger than anybody else
And you know what there's plenty of guys
They act all tough
They act like they you know
I'll take a bullet whatever
But then when push comes to shove
And they're actually facing death
They start you know
Getting really cowardly
They start realizing
Oh wait I'm not that tough
Okay
Because it takes a lot
To overcome the fear of death
But you know what can overcome that
Is the power of the gospel
The power that comes from God
And we see the apostles
You know they were constantly threatened with death
Constantly threatened of
Their physical safety being in jeopardy
Yet they just kept preaching the gospel
They just kept going
I mean how many times
Would you have to get stoned
You know like the apostle Paul was
To start realizing like
I could possibly lose my life you know
He walks into one town
And they stone him
And then he goes to the next town
And they stone him
He goes to the next town
They beat him with rods
You know he shows up at the fourth town
He's like
I don't know if I want to preach
You know
It seems like this message is really unreceptive
You know
But at the same time
He's getting people saved
And he's not doing it
Because
He wants to get injured
You know the apostle Paul's not going around
He's not
You know hoping that he gets hurt
He's not hoping that he dies
He's not hoping that some damage will happen to him
What he's saying is
You know I know there's that fear there
There's that natural tendency
And it's causing me to maybe not want to preach
Not want to feel the afflictions of the gospel
But you know what
The power of God's going to help me overcome it
And so it's normal
It's natural to say
You know what
I can feel that experience of that
You know
Feeling a little uncomfortable about the future
Thinking about
You know I don't really want to preach the gospel
And get in trouble
Or someone hurt me
Or someone threatened me with death
Or even dying for the gospel
You know having a natural tendency of not wanting to die
But saying you know what
I'm still going to overcome that fear
By the power of the gospel
Look at Romans chapter 1 verse 16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
For it is the power of God and the salvation
To everyone that believeth
To the Jew first and also the Greek
So notice the gospel is the power
And you say
How is that the power
Well just think about the gospel
What is the gospel
It's the death
Burial
But most specifically
Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Now
What does that help you realize
You know what
I'm going to come on the other side of death
And I'm going to be victorious through the resurrection
Okay
So that is going to then end up motivating you
To not have what
The fear of death
To not be so afraid of what's going to happen
Whenever you lose your physical life
Because let me just warn every person in this room
You will die
You're going to die
Okay
Maybe if you survive to the rapture
I don't know if that's happening in your lifetime
Outside of that caveat
You will die
And maybe that's just a type of death
But it just didn't hurt
You know it's like great
You know it's like
Immediately translated up in heaven right
But at the end of the day
You will die somehow
Somewhere
For some reason
And you know what
Because we have the gospel
Because we have hope
Because we know that when we resurrected one day
Because we know that we have eternal life
It gives us the power
To not live the rest of our remaining days in fear
Because what you could do
Is you could just be afraid from right now
Until the day that you die
You could
You could just say
You know what
I'm just so terrified of dying
I'm just so terrified of losing my life
I'm just so terrified of what's going to happen next
And you know what
For some people that aren't saved
You know what
They're terrified of hell every single day
They're so afraid
And they're so nervous about hell
But you know what
Because we have the gospel
Because we have eternal life
Because we're saved
We don't have to be afraid of that
Look there's plenty of Christians today
And I'm using that word lightly
Okay
I'm using just the world's definition of Christian
They're going to church
And they think that they can lose their salvation
They think that they're trying to earn their way to heaven
And they're afraid
That they're not going to do enough good works
To escape hell
They literally have a fear of hell every single day
Of their life
And you know what
They don't need to have that fear
Because you can have the power
Of the gospel
You know what
That's the wrong fear
To just be constantly tormented with these things
Now obviously
Being afraid that God will punish you
Is a righteous fear
We should fear God
And we should fear
That he would destroy us in hell
But we can overcome that through the power of the gospel
And we can get to a place where we no longer
Have to have that fear ever again
Go to Hebrews chapter number 13
Hebrews chapter number 13
And I'm going to show you several verses this morning
Hebrews chapter number 13
And this point's real simple
You know it's not something extravagant
It's not something that's really
You know
Something that's just like really revelatory
Oh wow
You know
But it's something that we need to constantly be reminded of
Hey
You're going to die but guess what
You're going to heaven
Therefore you shouldn't fear
And when the spirit of fear comes upon you about death
Or it comes upon you about
You know what someone may do to you
You should just be reminded
I'm going to heaven
Look at Hebrews chapter 13
And look at verse number 6
Let's back up a verse
Because it'll be a little help
Verse 5
Let your conversation be without covetousness
And be content with such things as you have
For he has said I will never leave thee
Nor forsake thee
So that we may boldly say
The Lord is my helper
I will not fear what man shall do unto me
Is that your testimony today?
Do you go every single day and think
You know what
Who cares what man may do to me
Because the Lord is my helper
The Lord is my helper
I have the gospel
I have the power of the gospel
I have eternal life
You know what
And God's on my side
And if God be for us
Who can be against us
You know what
I'm just not going to be afraid of what man can do to me
There's no fear
That's a great testimony
I will not fear what man shall do unto me
That's an easy thing to read
It's a hard thing to believe sometimes
Why?
Because your flesh is terrified about what man can do to you
But you can overcome that spirit of fear
Through what?
The power of the gospel
Go if you would to Revelation chapter 2
Revelation chapter 2
Let's see an example of this
Revelation chapter 2
And look at verse number 10
Now this is under the church in Smyrna
The Bible reads in verse 10
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer
Behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison
That ye may be tried
And ye shall have tribulation ten days
Be thou faithful unto death
And I will give thee a crown of life
So we see a group of Christians
These people are saved
And God is telling them specifically in this epistle
You know the Lord Jesus Christ is giving this epistle through his servant
His angel unto John
And John's writing unto these churches
And it's by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost
And he's writing unto them
And he's saying look guys
You're going to have a rough future
I mean what could be worse?
I mean maybe if it was less than ten days right?
I don't know
I don't know maybe ten days is worse
Because you have a lot of time to kind of think about it
But if I just say hey ten days
You're going to go to prison
You're going to suffer
And then you're going to die
Isn't that about the worst news you could probably get?
Outside of like maybe someone else getting hurt
You know like a family
But I'm just saying for you personally
Like you're going to jail
You're going to suffer
And then you're going to die
You're just like
And it's not even like
You know just someone telling you this
It's not like you read this on a message board
This is Jesus telling you
Okay
This is
It's not like
You're like well maybe there's
Oh wait that was Jesus that said that to me
Okay
But how did he start?
He said fear
None of those things
Now that's a tall order
Because that's literally
If you were going to say hey Pastor Shelley
What's the worst thing
What would be the biggest fear you could possibly have
Probably that
You know maybe if it was like a Russian prison
You know I don't know
Or if it was a Chinese prison
Maybe it might be a little bit worse
But I'm just saying this is about the worst
That you could possibly imagine ever happening to you
And notice what Jesus said
Don't fear it though
Still don't fear it
Just don't still be
You know what
Don't be ashamed
Of Jesus Christ
You know what
Jesus Christ had to go through
One of the most agonizing
Horrible deaths ever known
And you know what
He had to endure it
He had to not fear it
He had to just go ahead and go through with it
And say you know
And you say how could he do that
Through the power of God
God did not give us the spirit of fear
You know what
That's from the devil
The devil loves to go around
And terrify everybody of death today
But you know what
God wants to give us life
He wants to give us
You know
A spirit of power today
To where we can overcome
And we're not afraid of the physical death
No matter what man can do to us
No matter what will happen
Even if it's been confirmed a hundred percent
To not be afraid
Look people are so afraid of this
And they haven't even had Jesus tell them
Specifically it's going to happen to them
Okay
Some people they're so afraid of this
It hasn't even happened
It may never happen
Yet the people that are told
It's definitely going to happen
They're supposed to not be afraid
So you know that tells me
I shouldn't be afraid then
Because I haven't been
I haven't been promised that
I haven't been told like
Pastor Shelley in ten days
You're going to jail and dying
You know I didn't
I wasn't told that
And so you know
Why should I be afraid of it
Because even if I was
Even if it definitely was going to happen
I should still
Not have the spirit of fear
But rather I have to overcome it
With the power of God
Go to second Timothy chapter number two
Second Timothy chapter number two
Go back
To second Timothy
And look at chapter number two
So how do I overcome the spirit
Of fear
By the power of God
By the power of the gospel
By what he's promised me
And you know what
That's some intense power
Because obviously my flesh
Would freak out
But you know what
You can still overcome it
By the spirit
That's why you have to walk
In the spirit
So you won't fulfill
The lust of the flesh
But look at second Timothy chapter two
Look at verse number seven
Consider what I say
And the Lord give the understanding
In all things
Remember that Jesus Christ
Of the seed of David
Was raised from the dead
According to my gospel
Wherein I suffer trouble
As an evil doer
Even unto bonds
But the word of God is not bound
Now the word even
In your Bible
Is pretty much always
Specifically is what that means
So whenever it says
I usually think of the word even
In a different sense
Like how we use it kind of
In our modern vernacular
I would say
It's kind of worded a little bit differently
But in the Bible
Even just means specifically
Okay
So he's saying
Are you suffering trouble
As someone that's bad
He's an evil doer
In their eyes
Okay
And then it's saying even
Meaning specifically
He's in bonds
So he's saying specifically
The punishment that I'm going through
Is I'm in prison
I'm in jail
For what?
Preaching the gospel
Notice
He said
According to my gospel
Wherein I suffer trouble
Why is he suffering trouble?
Because he preached the gospel
Of Jesus Christ
That's why
He's thrown into prison
And he's saying something else though
But the word of God is not bound
So he's saying
Even though I'm bound
Hey, the gospel is still available
Hey, you guys can still go out and preach the gospel
It's not tied to me
It's not just wrapped up in Paul
It's not like Paul's the only one that has that power
You know, because we were reading
1 and 2 Timothy here
And we're talking a lot about those two guys
And obviously in these passages
It's maybe a pastor that we're talking to
But guess what
The gospel is not limited to Paul
It's not limited to Paul and Timothy
It's not limited to pastors
It's not limited to people that work for a church
You know, it's not limited to anything but the saved
And it's the saved's responsibility to go out and preach the gospel
To be a powerful witness
To go out and, you know what, not be afraid
Of the sufferings and afflictions of the gospel
You say, why?
Why would the apostle Paul do this?
Well, point number one was
How do I overcome the spirit of fear?
By power
But here's the second way that you can overcome
The spirit of fear is by love
By love
Why is Paul doing this?
Well, look at what he says in verse 10
Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sakes
That they may also obtain the salvation
Which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory
So why is it that the apostle Paul
Can overcome the spirit of fear?
Well, number one, he has the power of God
He has the power of the gospel
He's saved, he has eternal life
Okay, he has that power that's been given to him
But here's the second thing
He's motivated by love
The love of God
Okay, and what's that love?
That people who are not saved
Would become saved
That people would hear the gospel and get saved
He says, I endure all things for love's sake
What could cause someone
To endure such pain, suffering, and woe
It's love
Think about it
Why did Jesus Christ die on the cross?
For love
Why did God the Father sacrifice his son?
For God so loved the world
That he gave his only begotten son
What's one of the most powerful things to overcome fear?
It's love today
You know, there's a lot of things that we would never do
But if it's an interest to save a child
Or to save our family member
We would do it, right?
You know, you wouldn't just run out into traffic
Just for fun
You'd be afraid to run out in traffic
But if your child was out in traffic
You wouldn't even think about it
You could overcome that spirit of fear very quickly
And you could just rush out
You know, if there was a mighty rushing river
You wouldn't want to jump in there, it's dangerous
But if your child were in there
You would jump into that mighty rushing river
You would forget about the fear aspect
You would be overcome with what?
With love
Okay
You know, if someone was pointing a gun at you
You know, there'd be a lot of fear
But if they're pointing a gun at your child
You would step right in front of that
Because you're going to overcome that spirit of fear
Because of love today
Okay
And so that's a powerful motivating factor
To overcome the spirit of fear today is love
Go to Matthew chapter number 8 for a moment
Go to Matthew chapter number 8
And we understand that
Why is the apostle Paul doing the things that he's doing?
It's because he's filled with the love of God
That also tells me this
Those who don't care to preach the gospel
Aren't filled with the love of God
You know, it's funny
That people want to constantly tell our church how hateful we are
How we're just filled with so much anger and wrath and hatred
Yet, at the same time, these people never preach the gospel
These people never even open their mouth
To let anybody know how to go to heaven
And then they want to tell me
They want to lecture me on what the love of God really looks like today
They want to tell me about how much more loving they are
When they won't tell anybody about how to get saved
And you know what?
The people that I think are the most loving
Are the people that are going out so many the most
Hey, you want to tell me how loving you are? Great
How about you show me how loving you are?
How about you show me how you really care?
You know, there's these sick people
That will tell you how they're praying for all these wicked evil people
They're just so much more loving
You say that you want all the sodomites to go to hell
You guys are so filled with hatred towards the sodomites
And it's like, first of all, I don't want anyone to go to hell
But I realize they are
And so I just think they might as well go now
Why wait?
That's my philosophy
But at the end of the day, I don't want anyone to go to hell
I'm not desirous of people suffering the worst punishment ever
Possibly imagined
I don't want that for anybody
But it's funny how they'll tell me, oh, well, I'm praying for them to get saved
I'm praying for Elton John to get saved
And I'm praying for Ellen DeGeneres to get saved
And I'm praying for Joe Biden
I hope he gets saved
And I'm praying for all these different pedophiles
I hope Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself
He's still alive and he'll get saved
And I hope that everybody gets saved
I hope Kenneth Copeland gets saved
I hope the Pope gets saved
I'm just going to pray for them
I hope Bill Gates gets saved
And then they use that to try and virtue signal about how they're more loving than you
They say, oh, I'm so loving
You guys are so hateful
I pray for Bill Gates to get saved
Well, first of all, that's a stupid prayer
Number one
But number two
Isn't it interesting that you're spending all your time praying for Bill Gates to get saved
But you won't just walk outside
Knock on your neighbor's door
And preach him the gospel
You're supposed to expect me to believe you're so loving
That you won't even open your mouth
And preach your neighbor the gospel
Who's a trillion times more likely to get saved than Bill Gates
Okay
But, oh, but I'm praying that Bill Gates would get saved
Oh
You're not loving
It's fake
It's not real
That's not a real love
Okay
And at the end of the day
I'm supposed to overcome whatever fears I have
With the true love of God
With the true love of Jesus Christ
And you know what that is?
Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
Now go over to Matthew chapter 8, look at verse 25
And the disciples came to him and woke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish
And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful?
O ye of little faith
Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea
And there was a great calm
Now what happens in this story?
They're traveling by boat
And the disciples are freaking out because it's storming
But Jesus Christ, he doesn't care
He's just taking a nap
He's just like, whatever
And there's going to be times when your life is literally in a storm
I don't know, like an ice storm
Or whatever
And people are freaking out
And you say, well, what would Jesus do?
Go to sleep
Sleep like a baby
And you say, how can he do that?
Well, you know what?
He's not really afraid of the perils of this life
He's not afraid of what God's going to do to him
Because you know what?
He's like, I'm in the will of God
I'm going out and preaching the gospel
I'm doing good
So if God wants to take me home now, then so be it
You know what?
When you're in the love of God
And you're doing God's will
And you're doing what God has for you
Why are you so afraid that God will take you out by time and chance?
You know, the disciples are just freaking out
Look, you're on the most important mission
And the person that's in the most control is God here
Why is he just going to let...
I mean, imagine we're reading the Bible
We're in Matthew, chapter number 8
And all the disciples and Jesus drown in the sea
Well, that was a weird ending
You really think that's how it's going to end?
And notice what Jesus said
He said, of little faith
Look, they're in the middle of like tumultuous waters
And it's a raging storm
I mean, this is literally very dangerous
And notice Jesus Christ is saying they're of little faith
He's saying, you guys are freaking out about this?
Like, this isn't even that big a deal
Just a little bit of faith and you wouldn't even have to worry about this
You could have tackled this type of an issue
And the reality is, people, they're so afraid of the storms of life today
But let me tell you what
When you have the love of God in your heart
You're not afraid of the storms of life
You know, there's some people, they would say
Well, I'm not even getting on the boat because what if it storms?
What if some evil's going to happen to me, you know?
Rather than just saying
Hey, we're supposed to go preach the gospel, let's go
I don't care if it's storming or whatever
And they're not trying to be risky on purpose
They're not trying to do something foolish on purpose
But what they are saying is
Hey, if a storm of life just comes upon me
I'm just going to say, you know what, I'm in God's hand here
And God is going to protect me
Go to 1 John, chapter number 4
You know what? Storms are going to happen
Evil's going to happen
Things are going to happen
And you know what?
It wasn't because of global warming back then, okay?
And it's not now, all right?
And you say, well, what about that global warming?
Well, I was really hoping for it last week, you know
It's taking a while to get here
Well, it's not global warming
It's climate change, Pastor Shelley
Yeah, the climate changes every day
It changes every moment
Tell me something about that
It changes every moment
Tell me something new
You really come up with that on your own?
Hey, you know what? The climate's changing
Oh, really? That's incredible
Wow, what new discoveries are you going to come up with next?
Oh, a man's not a woman
That's not a cool discovery
It's false
You know, quit worrying about what the world's trying to think of
And the world's trying to come up with
Because they change every 5 minutes
You know, every 10 years the world's going to be destroyed
According to them
People are, but literally, Christians will freak out
Oh, I think they're going to do it
You know, and they'll also say, like, they've created these machines
They can control the weather
Look, they can't control anything
They can't even control themselves
Let alone the weather
Don't tell me that they're going to
Look, you know what also says they control the weather?
Kenneth Copeland
He says that he can just, like, blow tornadoes away and stuff
He's, like, flying in his airplane
He's just, like, blowing
You know, he blew coronavirus away
I feel like what he really did is just blew it on all of his congregants or something, you know
Quit worrying about what man's doing
Look, you know who's in control of the weather?
God
Sorry to burst your little bubble
God's in control of the weather
And you know what?
God can make it scorching heat
He can make it ice cold
And you know what?
In the end times, the Bible says it will be scorching heat at certain points
Because the sun's just going to come blaring down on people
And you know what?
It's not global warming
It's not because you sprayed hairspray on your hair
It's not because a cow let one rip, okay, out in the field, all right?
It's because God is in control of the weather today
And you know what?
People are so terrified of the weather
Look, God's in control of the weather
Why are you so afraid of God being in control of the weather today?
You know how much Jesus was terrified by that?
None
And you say, well, how can I overcome that?
Well, notice I was talking about the love of God
Well, think about how much God loves you
And you're so afraid
Look, realizing God's love and then demonstrating God's love
Is going to preserve you from a lot of fear
If God loves you so much
I mean, think about how much you love your children
God loves you more than you love your children
Why would you just let your kids just, you know, die by time and chance on these type of things?
He's not going to do that
And you know what?
When you're preaching the gospel and serving the Lord
You know what?
He's not going to just let some random weird thing happen to you, okay?
1 John chapter number 4, look at verse number 18
The Bible says this
There is no fear in love
But perfect love casteth out fear
Because fear hath torment
He that feareth is not made perfect in love
Now, show me in the Bible, okay?
Because there's a lot of stories
Show me the godly Christian, the person serving God, the guy doing God's will
That just randomly dies for no reason
When does it happen?
When was it like, and Elijah, oh, he just, he drowned himself
And David, he accidentally, you know, died in a car accident
And these guys accidentally choked and died
Like, when does that happen in the Bible?
It never did, okay?
So you know what you need to be really afraid of?
It's just being right with God
Now, they did die because they were persecuted
They died from affliction
They died from people trying to kill them that were evil and wicked
But you know what?
They didn't die from just random stupid things
And you know what?
When we have the love of God deep into our heart
Notice that there's no torment
Fear hath torment
You know what?
Living your life feeling loved is not bad
Living your life with fear is so much torment
You know a child that's really loved
And feels like their parents are going to take care of all their wants and wishes
He's not sad
He's not tormented
You know, but a kid that's in a rocky household
You know, or they don't know where the next meal's coming from
They feel like their parents don't love them
Their parents beat them or do evil to them or whatever
They live a life of torment
But you know what?
God is not an abusive father
God is not an evil father
God is not someone that's going around trying to hurt and harm you
God is love
And you know what?
When you have that love of God deep into your heart
You say, you know what?
I'm not terrified about what God's going to do to me when I'm right with him
Why would I be afraid?
I just want to embrace the Lord
Because he loves me
He's going to take care of me
He's going to provide for me
Just like that little baby
What if the little baby could actually think
You know, what if your little six-month-old could think
Okay, and I don't know how much they can or cannot
What if they had a really, an adult consciousness, right?
And they're sitting here thinking like
What am I going to do?
Because if my mom doesn't come and feed me in a few hours
I'm going to starve
I can't reach that
I can't grab anything
I can't even pull myself up
I can't even
I'm just laying here
I'm stuck
You know, it's like a turtle
He's just like
I can't do anything
You know
Oh no, I just soiled my diaper
If they don't clean that up
It's staying there
You know
I mean, just think about how helpless the baby is
Right?
But you know what it's doing?
It's just trusting in his parents to take care of it
And that's what we should have
We should have the same type of humility
And just saying, you know what?
God's just going to take care of us
And he's like
Well, what if, you know
This bad thing happens
Why won't we be able to take care of it?
It's like, what if a hurricane comes
And, you know
Where you're at
Well, it's not like I can do anything about it
It's not like I'm just
Oh, I'm going to stop the hurricane
You know
Or a tornado
Or whatever
Look, the powers that are out there
Are so much more than me
I can't do anything
All I can do is just trust that I'm in God's love
And when I'm filled with the love of God
And you know what?
I'm demonstrating the love of God
It can overcome that spirit
Go to Proverbs chapter one
What you should really be terrified of today is this
That you're not right with God
That you don't fear God
That you're not following his commandments
That's what you should be terrified of
Because when you don't follow God's commandments
When you don't love God
When you're not right with God
You know what?
Then horrible things can happen to you
But look what the Bible says
In verse
Let's read a few verses here
Because I like this passage
Let's back up
Let's just keep going
Let's say this
Verse 20
Wisdom crieth without
She uttereth her voice in the streets
She crieth in the chief place of concourse
In the openings of the gates in the city
She uttereth her words saying
How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity
And the scorners delight in their scorning
And fools hate knowledge
So notice these people
They love simplicity
They don't love God
They don't love God's commandments
It says in verse 23
Turn ye at my approval
Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you
I will make known my words unto you
Because I have called and ye refused
I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded
But ye have said it not all my counsel
And would none of my reproof
I also will laugh at your calamity
I will mock when your fear cometh
When your fear cometh as desolation
And your destruction cometh as a whirlwind
When distress and anguish cometh upon you
Then shall they call unto you
Then shall they call upon me
But I will not answer
They shall seek me early
But they shall not find me
For that they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord
So notice those who hate God
And don't choose the fear of the Lord
Guess what?
Not only are their fears going to come upon them
God's going to be laughing at them when they do
And why?
They don't like the fear of the Lord
They don't like knowledge
Verse 30
They would none of my counsel
They despised all my reproof
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way
And be filled with their own devices
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them
And the prosperity of fools shall destroy them
But whoso hearkeneth unto me
Shall dwell safely
And shall be quiet from fear of evil
Wow
That's a pretty cool verse
I like verse 33
Notice
If you hearken unto God
What?
You're going to dwell safely
And you're going to be quiet from fear of evil
Now you think Jesus thought about those thoughts maybe right before he went to sleep?
That's a good verse to think about
Was Jesus Christ hearkening unto the Father?
Yeah
He's like, you know what?
I'm going to dwell safely
Hey, you know what?
I'm going to be quiet from fear of evil
Now, go if you would to Proverbs 3 and look at verse 21
My son, let not them depart from thine eyes
He's talking about the next part
Keep sound wisdom and discretion
So sound wisdom and discretion
Don't let this depart from you
Verse 22
Hey, you know what?
I have trouble sleeping because I'm so afraid
You can solve that
Why don't you just go ahead and get God's wisdom and discretion
Get the love of God
Okay
And you know what?
You can overcome that
You can sleep sweet
You can sleep like a baby
I don't know if that's the right term
People say that
But it's like some babies don't sleep very well
Alright
Look at verse 25
You know what?
God could destroy and wipe out all of America
And you know what?
God's people could just go straight through it
You say, what does that look like, Jeremiah?
You know, when Babylon came and they besieged Jerusalem
They wiped out Jerusalem
I mean, they utterly destroyed Jerusalem
But you know who made it unscathed?
Jeremiah
Now, obviously, he went through a lot of persecution and affliction before that
But you know what?
He was unscathed from the sudden destruction
He was unscathed from the desolation of the wicked
You know what?
God can destroy all of the wicked and you can be fine
And notice what he says
Don't be afraid when it comes
You know what?
I want it to come
You know, people are like, oh, I don't want God to judge America
Why?
Well, because I don't want to get judged
That's really what they're saying
Okay
But here's the thing
If you're right with God
He can destroy all the wicked around you and you can go unscathed
You could end up coming out like a shining light
You can be protected by God
Even though all the wicked are being utterly destroyed
And let me tell you something
You know what?
Obviously, Joe Biden is, you know, he's not even there cognitively
But through his policies and being the puppet that he is
He's trying to actively destroy our economy
And destroy America and ruin a lot of things for people
But you know who's going to be the most affected by that?
The lazy
The simple
The stupid
The foolish
You know why?
Because they spend so much money on things like, I don't know, drugs
And alcohol
And cigarettes
And they spend their money on the lottery
And they just waste money
And they're foolish
And they're simple-minded
And they're ignorant
And they're not investing in family
And in church
And the things of God today
And they're not hardworking
And they're always complaining
And you know what?
They are going to suffer the consequences of that
They're going to eat the fruit of their own way
But you know what?
God's people can still thrive
And a horrible American economy
Because God can protect them
God can preserve them
God can still give them good wages
You know what?
They may lay off all the lazy, wicked people
You know all these people that are coming in from Mexico
Supposedly, or if they do, I don't know
All the people fleeing
And they're like, they're so afraid because they're going to take away our jobs
They're not going to take away my job
You know how much I'm afraid that they would take away my job right now?
Zero
Okay, well that's because you're a pastor
Okay, how about when I was a senior developer?
You know how much fear I had of them coming and taking my job?
Zero
You know who's afraid of their job being taken?
The fag that's the clerk at McDonald's
Why?
Because anybody can do that job
Anybody can do
Look, when you have a skilled position
When you're a skilled laborer
You're not afraid of the unskilled laborers flooding in
Because that's not going to hurt you
That's not going to cause any kind of pain to you
And you say, well why are you saying that?
Well because God is constantly telling you to get knowledge and wisdom and to work hard
And let me tell you what
If you work really hard and you're diligent
And you're gaining knowledge and you're gaining skill
And you're a righteous person
You're going to find a job
There's going to be a place for you to get work and to make sure you're paying your bills
And you say, even if you don't have that, God will provide for you
Because he's never seen the righteous forsaken
Nor is he begging bread
You know it's going to hurt the lazy
You know it's going to hurt the unrighteous
You know it's going to hurt the guy that's wasting all of his money on stupid, foolish things today
But why would I be so afraid
Hey, I have the love of God on me
And if I'm walking according to his word
I don't have to fear these things
And whenever destruction comes on the wicked
They're going to be the ones that suffer
Not me
Go to Luke chapter 21
Luke chapter 21
You say, well I don't know what I'm supposed to do
Well start loving God
And you know what
You loving God and realizing the love that he has towards you
Is going to help you overcome the spirit of fear today
I'm so afraid of the economy being destroyed
Why?
If, let's just think about it
If everybody in our country
Their personal finances were destroyed
Except for all the people that are saved
All the righteous, right?
Would that really be a bad thing?
Well first of all, you didn't get destroyed
Number one
And number two
If everybody just lost all their money
Do you think you're going to be more or less receptive to the gospel?
Probably more
It's like a win-win
It's like, nothing bad happened to us
And you know what
They're destroying themselves
Now they're more ready for the gospel of Jesus Christ
Notice the prosperity of fools shall destroy them
Hey, you know what we should take away from the fool?
Prosperity
We should stop letting them get away with their ignorance
And their foolishness
And their nonsense
And you know what
And they start looking at the Christian and say
Well, why are these people succeeding?
Oh, it's because they work hard
And they're living a clean life
And they're righteous
Maybe it'll say, I want to live like that guy
I want to be like him
Now obviously, the super wicked
They'll just try to steal it from you
Because they're envious
But at the end of the day
Some people look at that and say
Wow, I want to be like that guy
I want to be like Abraham
Look how much he's blessed by God
Hey, I want to be like Joseph
Look how much he's blessed by God
I want to be like Daniel
Now obviously, the top guys didn't like Daniel
But a lot of people look up to Daniels and the Abrahams
And they're going to get saved
And they're going to hear the gospel
And you know what
We should want the destruction of the wicked to come
Because it's not going to affect us
Now if you're wicked, you might be afraid
Alright, look at Luke 21, look at verse 26
Men's hearts failing them for fear
And for looking after those things which are coming on the earth
Now this is in context of what?
The great tribulation and the end times and all those things
But notice some men's hearts are going to literally fail them
They're going to literally die of a heart attack because of fear
They're so afraid
And you know what
You could be so paralyzed by fear
That you won't do anything
You know, there's going to be people
I can't go to steadfast Baptist church
Because it's a hate group
You know, I'm so afraid of what people will say
I'm so afraid of what my family will say
And my friends will say
And I'm so afraid of what someone will say
When I knock on their door and I say
Hey, I'm from steadfast Baptist church
You know what most people say?
I have no idea what church that is
You know
Nobody even knows or cares
Go back to Matthew 24, go to Matthew 24
Let's look at a few other verses
Look, in the end times
Let me tell you something
As we approach the day of Christ
And we get closer in the end times
And we're further into the end times
Things are going to be more chaotic
Than now
You say, wow, 2020
What is 2021?
Well, guess what
It's just going to keep being like that
If you think it's going to get more normal
It's not going to get more normal
It's going to get more tumultuous
It's going to be more crazy
There's going to be more adversity
And affliction and persecution
Just in general
Just for everybody
The world is going to wax worse and worse
And when we look at the days of Lot
And we look at the days of Noah
Because that's what the Bible says
It's going to be like
Was it a real peaceful time?
No, the Bible says
Then last days perilous times shall come
So it's going to be more dangerous
More evil
More bad things happening
So you know what we need to do
We need to overcome the spirit of fear
With what?
With power and love
With love
And you say, well, why would you want to go through all that?
I just want to go move into the woods
I just want to go hide
Because when you read this list
It makes you want to go hide
Look at Matthew 24, look at verse 4
And Jesus answered and said to them
Take heed that no man deceive you
For many shall come in my name
Saying I am Christ and shall deceive many
And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars
See that ye be not troubled
For all these things must come to pass
But the end is not yet
For nation shall rise against nation
And kingdom against kingdom
And there shall be famines and pestilences
And earthquakes and divers places
All these are the beginning of sorrows
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted
And shall kill you
And ye shall be hated of all nations
For my name's sake
And then shall many be offended
And shall betray one another
And shall hate one another
Now when you read this
And I read this
You know what my natural thought is?
Well, you know what?
I'm just going to go buy a house out in the woods
I'm going to go buy a house out in the middle of nowhere
And just
Me and my family will just be safe from all that
All the war
And all the pestilence
And all these things
Wouldn't that be nice?
Well, there's going to be famines
I might as well just go ahead and start my own farm now
Right?
I mean, Bill Gates just bought all the other farm land
So I'll just be the only other guy that has farm land
I'll get my own cows
And, you know, for vegetables I'll have a garden
And I'll start storing up grain
And I'll start getting bullets
And I'll build a moat around my house
And I'll put crocodiles in there
You know, people aren't expecting crocodiles
You know?
And I'll booby trap everything
And I'll get satellites
And I'll get cameras
And I'll be bunkered down
And I'll be safe
Why would I want to leave that, though?
Why would someone say, you know what?
Why would we not do that?
Right?
Love
Love?
Love for who?
Well, not love of myself
But love for the lost that are out in the world
That are not in that bunker with me
And me going out and preaching the gospel
And saying, why would you go through famine?
Love for people
Why would you go through pestilence?
Love for people
Why would you go through wars?
Love for people
Why would you go through all the distress?
Why would you be afflicted and killed and go to prison?
And why would you have the threat of death?
And why would you have your name thrown in the mud?
And why would you have people constantly attacking you
And shutting down your bank accounts
And stealing stuff from you
And hating on you
And your family not liking you?
You know why?
Love
Love today
And you know what?
God didn't give me the spirit of fear
He gave me a spirit of love today
He gave me the love of the lost
To go out and to preach the gospel
And you say, oh, let Kenneth Copeland do that
He doesn't love anyone
Let Billy Graham do it
He doesn't love anyone
Let the Mormons do it
They don't love anyone
Only the saved have the love of God
And you know what?
God didn't give us that love
To just hide it
To not use it
To not go out and to preach the gospel
To go on the highways and the hedges and to preach
No, he wants us to have this love
To overcome the spirit of fear today
Don't be afraid of those things
And look
Whatever horrible stuff we've gone through
It is nothing in comparison to what this is talking about
Nothing
Absolutely nothing
If you can't go through the last few years
Buckle up
Say, well, I'm going to go hide
While you just don't love
Go to Luke chapter 12
Actually, before you go there
I want to go to a few more places
I want to just skip through the Bible
Go to Genesis 37
I'm going to give you my last point
How do you overcome the spirit of fear?
Power
How do you overcome the spirit of fear?
Love
How do you overcome the spirit of fear?
By a sound mind
By getting good doctrine
When you have the good doctrine
You understand the knowledge of God
You know what?
You're not going to be rattled and shaken
By a bunch of foolishness and nonsense
And by not understanding
There's nothing to fear
You know?
A lot of people
They just get freaked out about everything
Okay?
And notice one of those things
Is rumors of wars
Okay?
And what do I liken this unto?
Conspiracies
And look
Conspiracy is a real thing
Okay?
And I'm going to demonstrate this in the Bible
We're going to go really quick through this
Okay?
A lot of verses
So if you can't keep up
That's, you know
You'll have to just hear it
Listen
All right?
We're going to go a lot of verses
The word conspire
Conspiracy
Or conspire
Or some variation
It's found in your Bible 30 times
I believe in conspiracy
Okay?
But here's the thing
I shouldn't be afraid of any conspiracy
And I have to understand this
Conspiracy has always happened
And what man of God
What servant of God
Changed their course of action
Because conspiracies existed
Because conspiracies were happening
And people will get to a weird
They're like so obsessed with conspiracy theories
That they start going
And they become like an Alex Jones fanatic
Okay?
And look
Alex Jones is a charlatan my friend
You know what he sells?
Fear
Alex Jones sells fear
What are his products?
I don't know
Storable food
Why?
Fear
What does he sell?
You know
Information that'll protect you
From all the woes of the economy
Fear
What
Every product he sells
Is a fear based product
And look
I'm not saying
You know
You should have zero food
On your cupboard
You know
I'm not saying that you can't
You know
Have things well prepared
Or have a gun
Or provide for yourself
Hey
The horse is prepared against
The day of battle
You know
At the end of the day
Alex Jones
He doesn't emanate the power of God
He's not preaching the gospel
Of Jesus Christ
He doesn't have the love of God
He has a huge platform
When is he preaching
The gospel to anybody?
He could get on there
And broadcast the gospel of Jesus Christ
All day every day
If he wanted to
You know what he's selling?
Fear
But that's not of God
It's not what God wants me to have
And people get so obsessed
With conspiracies
That they destroy their spiritual life
And chase after conspiracies
They'll
They'll leave good churches
And just go out into the woods
And just obsess about conspiracy theories
And then they'll start harkening
Under the weirdest freaks
You know
People that claim to be Jesus Christ
And they're just like
Whoa
Why do you care about what this guy has to say?
Don't get so wrapped up in this conspiracy
Let me show you in the Bible
Genesis 37 look at verse 8
And his brethren said to them
Shout thou indeed reign over us
Or shout thou indeed have dominion over us
And they hated him yet
The more for his dreams
And for his words
And so we see that
Joseph's brethren
They hate him
And they're gonna end up conspiring against him
Look what it says
I'm trying to
I lost my verse here
That I'm trying to think of
They say this dreamer cometh
And then they conspired against him
Yeah 18
Look at 18
And when they saw him afar off
Even before he came
Near unto them
They conspired against him to slam
So notice here's a conspiracy
And what's to conspire
What's a conspiracy
It's basically a secret agreement
For a common cause
A secret agreement for a common cause
That could be good or bad potentially
It doesn't
This case is obviously really bad
Go to 1 Samuel 22
1 Samuel 22
Let me show you a couple other conspiracies here
The Bible often mentions them
1 Samuel 22
Look at verse number 8
That all of you have conspired against me
And there is none that showeth them
And there is none that showeth me
That my son hath made a league
With the son of Jesse
Now this is Saul
And he's afraid that everybody's conspired against him
But here's the thing
They didn't
There was no conspiracy
And so you can get to a point
Where you get so conspiracy crazy
That
You just start believing conspiracies that don't even exist
Q
Sorry
Or whatever
They get so weirded out
They start believing that literally
All of the evil people in our country
Are controlled by reptilian aliens
Okay
I'm not joking
Okay
They think Elvis is still alive
They think all kinds of crazy things
Well there's some guy behind the curtain
That controls everything
Well if you're talking about Satan
Then sure
But if you're talking about a dude
No
There's not
That's not gonna happen to the Antichrist
Okay
And notice
The conspiring that went against Joseph
His brethren
Was that a
Was that a good thing that Joseph
Walked into that trap anyways?
They meant it for evil
But God meant it for good didn't he?
Go to 2 Samuel chapter 15
2 Samuel chapter 15
There's a lot of conspiracies in the Bible
A ton
Look at 2 Samuel 15
Look at verse 12
An Absalom sent for Hithophel the Gilanite
David's counselor from his city
Even from Gila
Or Gilo
While he offered sacrifices
And the conspiracy was strong
For the people in Crete continued with Absalom
Absalom conspired against his
His dad David
And you know what
That's a picture of Judas conspiring against Jesus
Go to 1 Kings chapter 15
1 Kings chapter 15
Now
Did that conspiracy end up having some kind of benefit spiritually?
Yeah
It shows us what Jesus Christ would go through
Was it good that Judas conspired against Jesus?
Well
Obviously the direct action's wicked
But you know what
God used it for good in the gospel
Well there's this conspiracy
You know
That people are gonna kill Christians
Which one are you talking about?
When has that not been the case?
1 Kings chapter 15
Look at verse 27
And Baashar the son of Ahijah
Of the house of Izzikar conspired against him
Now you know what's a really common conspiracy?
Kings overthrowing other kings
Or presidents
You know
Outwitting other presidents
Maybe in the election
I don't know
You judge
Look at chapter 16
Look at verse 16
And the people that were encamped heard say
Zemri hath conspired
And hath also slain the king
Look at 2 Kings chapter 9
You know who did a lot of conspiracies and killing
Of the leader?
The Romans
Through Caesars
Et tu Brutae?
You know
He's like
And you Brutus?
He's saying
Look
Why?
Because they're constantly conspiring
Constantly killing
Look
There's always a plot to take power
The people that are in power
Look
Did you know in Myanmar
Maybe you don't know this
But in Myanmar
The military
Literally took over the entire country
Because they said the election was a fraud
And they overthrew the entire government
And now they're military run right now
That's a literal conspiracy
That literally happened
Now a lot of people were hoping that was going to happen in America
It didn't
Okay
But
Oh there's all these conspiracies
Yeah they are
All the time
Even in the Bible
Everywhere
I had just turned to 2 Kings chapter number 9
Look at verse number 14
So Jeho the son of Josephat
The son of Nimshik
Conspired against Joram
Look at chapter 12
Look at verse number 20
And his servants arose and made a conspiracy and slew Joash and the house of Mylo
Which goeth down to Silla
Look at
Chapter 14 and verse number 19
Now they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lakish
But they sent after him to Lakish and slew him there
Look at chapter 15 verse number 10
And Shalom the son of Jabesh conspired against him and smote him before the people and slew him
When is there not a conspiracy?
It's like every single king is just like they conspired against him and killed him
And then they conspired against him and killed him
And you know what's ramping up right here?
Because guess what?
When you conspire against your master and kill him
Guess what's going to happen to you?
You're going to eat the fruit of what?
Your own way
Hey Biden you want to cheat?
And become president?
Guess what's going to happen next time?
Someone's going to cheat again and someone's going to cheat again
They're like
I think that people are going to cheat again in the election
Oh
Shocker
Really?
You think there's a conspiracy out there?
Second Kings chapter 21
Look at verse 23
Chapter 21 look at verse 23
And the servants of Ammon conspired against him and slew the king in his own house
Go to Nehemiah chapter number 4
Nehemiah chapter number 4
Right before the book of Job and Esther
Nehemiah look at chapter 4 and look at verse number 8
The Bible reads
And conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem
So this is in ballot, this is Dobiah
There's a lot of people that come and they conspire against God's people
That are trying to build the house of the Lord
And they're conspiring against them to shut them down
And to get them to stop serving God
Go to Acts chapter 23
You know in Jeremiah chapter number 11
They were conspiring
Hey in Ezekiel 22
They were conspiring
In Acts they're conspiring
Look you know when there's not a conspiracy in the Bible as far as like a timeline is concerned?
Virtually never
There's always conspiracy
Let me ask you this question
How many times are the men of God concerned about it?
Are they terrified about it?
Are they letting control them?
Are they freaking out about it?
Are they so worried?
Never
What about even when it's conspired against them personally?
It's not even just like this conspiracy theory that's out there
Right like who killed Kennedy or whatever
That affects no one in this room
Right
But like a specific conspiracy against you
Look at Acts chapter 23 and look at verse 11
And the night following the Lord stood by him and said
Be of good cheer Paul
For as thou has testified of me in Jerusalem
So must thou bear witness also at Rome
And when it was day certain of the Jews banded together
And bound themselves under a curse saying
That they would neither eat nor drink
Till they had killed Paul
And they were more than 40 which had made this conspiracy
Notice 40 men made a conspiracy
They said we're not going to eat or drink
We're going to curse ourselves until we kill Paul
That's a serious conspiracy
You know what God already told Paul
You're going to Rome
Why would Paul have to be afraid of this?
He doesn't have to be afraid of it
Okay
And people they start freaking out about conspiracy theories
And they start getting so focused on conspiracy theories
And pretty soon they're wearing a tinfoil hat
They've got a flat earth map
And they bought all of Alex Jones merchandise
And you and I both know that's true
And look
Some people that are good, honest people
And they kind of get on this train because they start realizing conspiracies are true
And it's like yeah
I could show you lots of conspiracies in the Bible
But you know there's also conspiracies that are not true
Look what Saul, Saul was like
Oh there's all these people conspiring against me
No they're not
You know and people start thinking the weirdest stuff
And when I say the weirdest stuff I mean it
Like the weirdest stuff
Okay they're like Donald Trump is still our president
Hillary Clinton's been arrested
Everyone's a hologram
There's aliens that are going to come and invade
And they're going to use Trump as their queen to hatch
You know a new alien race
And we need to collect new energy
And when you go into your closet you collect energy by saying hum
Don't go off on that
The earth's not flat
The moon's not made of cheese
Okay
And people get so obsessed about this stuff
And so weirded out
And you know people be like what about the moon landing
Well if they can land a rover on Mars
Why is it so hard to believe they could land something on the moon
Okay
Well let's say it didn't happen
Who cares?
Let's say it happened
Who cares?
It's so stupid and foolish
To have so much fear from all the conspiracies out there
You'll scare yourself to death
You won't even be able to sleep at night
You say well Bill Gates said they're going to go to 100% synthetic beef
Well I'm not
Who cares if everybody else does
That's more beef for me
Hey it's a doctrine of devils
To tell people not to eat certain meats
Alright they can eat crickets all day long
I'll still have a burger
You know what I'm going to go ahead and keep supporting beef
Today and the next day
And you know what
The people that love money won't care
They'll give me some beef
Go to Luke chapter number 12
I don't care if half of America starts eating crickets
That's just more steak for me
Well I'm just so freaked out Pastor Shelley
Stop
Stop being so afraid
You say how do I overcome that
How do I overcome that?
A sound mind
The Bible says the simple believeth every word
If you believe every conspiracy theory
You're stupid
You're simple
Now if you think that there's no conspiracy theories
You're also stupid
It's somewhere in the middle
But I don't care to figure out every single one
I don't really want to know about every single one
I don't want to focus my life on conspiracy theories a day
And they're just a big distraction
And I can get distracted
You can get distracted
You don't get afraid of it
But you know what
A sound mind will help you overcome that fear
Because God had conspiracy theories all through the Bible
And they're still going to be ones today
And he's still going to have his people serve him
Through all of it
Look at Luke chapter number 12
Look at verse number 6
Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings
And not one of them is forgotten before God?
That even the very hairs of your head
Are all numbered
Fear not therefore
You're of more value
Than many sparrows
And I say unto you
Whosoever shall confess me before men
Him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God
But he that denieth me before men
Shall be denied before the angels of God
You know what
You should be afraid of is being ashamed of Jesus
Not confessing Jesus openly
Because then guess what
He may not confess you to the Father
Whenever you're in trouble
Whenever you need his grace
You need his help
Hey we can come boldly on the throne of grace
You know what
When we're confessing Jesus Christ
And we're right with God
And we got the love of God
But you know what
If you turn your ear away from hearing the law
Even your prayers and abomination unto God is what the Bible says
And instead of being so worried about figuring out all the conspiracy theories
Why don't you start worrying about being right with God
That's how you have a sound mind
And start worrying about God's commandments
Why I'm so worried about my food and my clothing and all these things
Well let's keep reading
Look at verse 22
And he said unto his disciples
Therefore I say unto you
Make no thought for your life
What ye shall eat
Neither for the body
What ye shall put on
The life is more than meat
And the body is more than raiment
What do you think God wants?
Do you think God wants us to go around terrified
Of our next meal
And where we're going to get our next clothing
And where we're going to get everything
Or does he want us just focused on him
And focused on serving him
You know if I sit here I'm like
I don't know where I'm going to get my next meal
I don't know what they have in the grocery stores
I don't know what they have on the shelves
I don't know what's going to happen
I don't know where I'm at
Or does he want me to just be like
Hey there's people that are lost today
Maybe I should just go out there and preach them the gospel
Maybe I should just have a sound mind
And say you know what
I think God's going to take care of me
Do you think of my kids
When I tell them in the morning like
Hey why don't you go ahead and play
Or they're like
What if God doesn't feed us today
What do you think
I don't know
Should we try to get our own food
I don't know I'm just so terrified
Do you want one of my kids just terrified
Of what for lunch
Of what's for dinner
Of what they're going to eat
Of where they're going to go
What they're going to be clothed with
Or do I just want them to live their life
And you know what
God wants us to live our life
God wants us to serve him
God wants us to focus on the word of God
And on his commandments
And preaching the gospel
And stop being so afraid
Of all the stupid trivial stuff
Was it going to be crickets
Who cares
You know it's just nonsense
I don't even want to eat
Who wants to eat
Alex Jones' adorable food anyways
I don't want to eat that
Okay
Go if you would to 1 John chapter 2
1 John chapter number 2
And I'm almost finished this evening
Or this morning I'm sorry
1 John chapter number 2
Look at verse number 15
The Bible says
Love not the world
Neither the things that are in the world
If any man love the world
The love of the Father is not in him
For all that is in the world
The lust of the flesh
And the lust of the eyes
And the pride of life
Is not of the Father
But is of the world
And the world passeth away
And the lust thereof
But he that doeth the will of God
Abideth forever
Look when you have the love of God
Deep into your heart
And you realize that all the things
That are in the world
Are not of God
Has nothing to do with God
That sound mind is going to help me realize
Oh okay I don't need to worry about that then
I need to stop worrying about all this nonsense
I need to stop being envious of the wicked
And envious of the unrighteous
You know what?
The fear of man bringing the snare
I don't need to be afraid of man
I don't need to be afraid of all those things
You know Jesus said to be faithful unto death
Go to 1 Peter chapter 4
Last place I'm going to have you go
1 Peter chapter number 4
How do I overcome the spirit of fear today
Pastor Shelley?
Number 1
By the power of God
Hey I'm going to heaven
You going to heaven?
Fear gone
Hey don't threaten me with death
It's a good time
Overcome by the love of God
Hey I do things for the next sake
Whenever I'm afraid of something
I just say well you know what
I'm doing it to get someone saved
You know what?
I read my Bible in the morning
And I keep serving God
And I keep following His commandments
So I'll be a good vessel to be used by God
And I'm motivated to keep serving God
Because otherwise you know what?
All this stuff is a headache
I could just go
I could make so much more money
If I just go out
And I just work a secular job
And I spend all my hours and energy
On making my own businesses
Or you know buying real estate
Or doing these things
I could make so much more money
Doing that stuff
I have way less headaches
I could have a bigger house
I could have more goods
You say why stay in church
And why serve God
And why want to be a pastor
Why do these things
It's for the elect's sake
It's because you got to love other people
You got to love other people
You have the love of God
The love of God will say
You know what?
Stop loving the world
And start loving souls
And you know what?
God will still give you a good meal here and there
God will still give you a nice place to say
Hey God will still take care of your temporal needs
But why don't you start putting
The love of God at the forefront of your mind
And stop loving the world so much
Well I'm afraid of losing those things
You're going to lose them anyways
I don't want to lose souls
That's what I'm really
You know at the end of the day
I'm not going to go up to heaven
And be like
Oh man I lost that house
I lost that car
You know it has 300,000 miles on it
It's already gone in my mind
You know
None of these things are already gone
I'm going to lose those 10 year old shoes I'm wearing
Oh man
You know
I'm going to
Look I already forgot about all the meals I had anyways
Some of them sucked too
And I can overcome by a sound mind
By understanding this really important fact
God's in control
And if God's in control
Why don't I just
Accept
Him being in control
Look what it says in verse number 19
1 Peter chapter 4 look at verse 19
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God
Commit
The keeping of their souls to Him in well doing
As unto a faithful creator
Here's my question
Do you believe that God is a faithful creator?
Do you believe that God
Has put you on this earth
And the position you're in
And all the things that you have
For a specific reason
If God sacrifices His son for you
He's not going to take care of you from all the other stuff
All the other little things
Hey
The sound mind says
You know what
He's in control
You know my son
Loves to be a backseat driver
He loves to
Dad
It's a red light
You need to stop
Dad it's green
Why don't you go
Dad watch out for those cars
Dad you're going too fast
Dad whatever
And I'm thinking like
I got it
Stop worrying about it
I'll drive
And here's the thing
You as a Christian
God
There's
The weather
God
The government
God
Biden's
Biden's the president
Kamala Harris is the vice president
Bill Gates just bought all the farmland
God
Are you paying attention
This guy's merging
The light turned red
And God's like
I'm good
I got this
You know the sound mind says
He's driving
He's good
He got this
I mean think about it
You have 40 guys conspiring against Paul
I mean when you find out about that
You're going to freak out
Hey there's 40 guys that want to kill you
And they're not going to eat or drink until they do
But God's still driving?
Okay
But God's still the faithful creator?
Alright
I can handle it
How can I overcome the spirit of fear?
We should literally fear nothing
You should fear God
That's it
For God has not given us the spirit of fear
But of power
And of love
And of a sound mind
Overcome the spirit of fear
Close in prayer
Thank you Father so much for your word
Thank you for giving us the ability to overcome fear today
And that our lives would not be paralyzed by fear
But rather we would embrace the power, love
And the sound mind that you offer us
And I pray that we would rather get a large fear of God
That we get a large fear of the Lord
That we get a fear of His commandments
That we would try to be as pleasing in your sight
And understand that at the end of the day we're all going to heaven
Understand that nothing can separate us from the love of God
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord
And that we would share that love with others
We'd be motivated by love to overcome fear today
And that we'd use our sound mind and realize
You're still in control
You're still on the throne
You're still God
And that we would just commit ourselves
Under you keeping our souls
As a faithful creator
In Jesus' name we pray
Amen
All right for the final song we're singing 396
So little time
Again that's 396
So little time
The harvest will be over
Our reaping done
We reapers taken home
Report our work
To Jesus Lord of harvest
And hope He'll smile
And that He'll say well done
Today we report
Miss our golden harvest
Today it's given us
Lost souls to win
Oh then to save
Some dear ones from the burning
Today we'll go
To bring some sinner in
How many times
I should have strongly pleaded
How often did
I feel too strictly worn
The Spirit moved
Oh had I planned for Jesus
The grain is found
Lost ones not reborn
Today we'll reap
Or miss our golden harvest
Today it's given us
Lost souls to win
Oh then to save
Some dear ones from the burning
Today we'll go
To bring some sinner in
How many times
I'll bring some sinner in
Despite the heat
The ceaseless toll
The hardship
The broken heart
For those we cannot win
Misunderstood
Because we're all peculiar
Still no regrets
We'll have but for our sin
Today we reap
Or miss our golden harvest
Today it's given us
Lost souls to win
Oh then to save
Some dear ones from the burning
Today we'll go
To bring some sinner in
A day of pleasure
Or a feast of friendship
A house or car
Or garments fair or fame
We'll all be trashed
When souls are brought to heaven
How sad to face
The slacker's blame
Today we reap
Or miss our golden harvest
Today it's given us
Lost souls to win
Oh then to save
Some dear ones from the burning
Today we'll go
To bring some sinner in
A harvest white
With reaper's cue is wasting
And many souls
Will die and never know
The love of Christ
The joy of sins forgiven
Oh let us weep
And love and pray and go
Today we reap
Or miss our golden harvest
Today it's given us
Lost souls to win
Oh then to save
Some dear ones from the burning
Today we'll go
To bring some sinner in
Amen, you're dismissed.
Thank you for watching!